


Detective Work

by Astramentis



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Cousin Incest, Developing Relationship, F/F, Post-Octo Expansion DLC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-02 08:05:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15792438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astramentis/pseuds/Astramentis
Summary: After a concert, Pearl begins to feel a sense of urgency about her unrequited feelings towards Marina, who she still knows relatively little about. She embarks on a little investigation to find out if her feelings might be reciprocated.





	1. Pearl Gets Nervous

**Author's Note:**

> Haven't written anything, well, ever. Enjoy

Pearl and Marina had just wrapped up a concert that night, and Pearl was now back at their shared apartment in Flounder Heights. She was relaxing in front of her laptop, clad in a plush bathrobe and fuzzy squid shaped slippers, perched on a small fuzzy pink stool.

 

On autopilot, she entered an anonymous message board she often frequented before she started hitting it big as a musician.

 

As a young squid, hanging out on anonymous boards had been great fun, but ever since she and Marina had become established as mainstream artists things had become a lot different.

 

These boards were ruthless, and back when she was younger she had participated as well, shitposting about popular squids. In fact, if Callie or Marie ever knew what she had said about them online-

She cut herself off. Thinking about that stuff would make the next time she saw them unbearably awkward.

 

Either way, the cephalopods hanging out on these boards we’re brutally mean to even the most popular of squids, and she had stopped visiting when she started becoming popular, for obvious reasons.

 

_This is such a bad idea, Pearl…._

 

She couldn’t resist. At the very top of the board was a thread about her and Marina, and she gave up on exiting out of the webpage.

 

"God what a squidlet, she's so short she looks like an 8 year old!"

“Pearl is actually just a gremlin, she’d fit right in in 3rd grade”

 

The jokes about her height we're such low hanging fruit they didn't bother her at all. Well, they did bother her a little, but it was so expected that all she could do was shrug. Scrolling down she began to see posts supporting their music, posts hating their music, and posts about Marina.

 

She began to subconsciously slow down and read posts about Marina more intently.

 

There was a conspiracy theory discussion about Marina being an octoling, which were completely true. I mean, it wasn’t like Marina even tried to hide it! Of course, people harassing them about it might prove to be an issue, so Pearl hoped these people didn’t try to air this stuff out in public. But the ones that actually stung were the ones insinuating that Marina was only putting up with Pearl, or that Marina hated Pearl.

 

"Look at the look on Marina's face during the news segments, she looks like she’s in pain just talking to that gremlin.”

 

There were others like this one, most of them either hoping Marina would break off from her and go solo, and concocting various reasons as to why Marina clearly disliked spending time with Pearl.

 

She subconsciously furrowed her brows as she blankly stared at the screen.

 

Just the thought of Marina leaving her made her very nervous. Marina was incredibly warm and kind to her, but she was still surprisingly guarded about her inner emotions. A lifetime serving in the octarian military had definitely left its mark.

 

She rocked back and forth on the stool as she pondered. It had taken a while to develop, but Pearl recently had to admit to herself that she was in love with Marina. And if it wasn't love, it was at the very least a desire for Marina that was more than just friends.

 

_Ah, just thinking about her makes my tentacles flutter_

 

She wrapped her two tentacles around her face to hide her embarrassment, even though she was the only squid in the apartment.

 

It was no surprise then, that the idea that Marina disliked her was absolutely unacceptable. She had never seriously thought about Marina wanting to split up, but now that it was in the forefront of her mind the niggling doubts began to creep in.

 

Pearl rubbed her eyes in frustration as she closed the message board. She was such a foolish squid. Why was she worrying about this stuff when she didn’t even know the basics?

 

I mean, she didn’t even know if Marina was gay in the first place!

 

This had been building up for awhile now, and enough was enough, she had to start searching for answers.

 

Pearl sat back and considered the idea. First, she had to find out if she was doomed to begin with; If Marina was straight Pearls dreams would be splatted before they had even begun to live. Yes, finding out if Marina was gay was priority number one. But how?

 

One possibility was that she could get someone close to Marina to ask her about these… things. But the cephalopods Marina spent time with were very limited.

 

Marie? Callie? No, not anywhere near close enough.

 

Agent 8? That was a real possibility. Agent 8 saw Marina like an older Maternal figure, and they had become entangled with each other ever since the events of the deep sea metro. But no, to ask Agent 8 to do this wouldn’t be fair, as she was still recovering and moving on from her traumatic experiences. Agent 8 was also a terrible freakin liar.

 

Another avenue then. Perhaps she could try to bring up the topic of being gay in casual conversation? Finding a news article or video with a lesbian couple wouldn’t be difficult, and then she could…

 

Perfect! She could ask Marina about it under the pretense of understanding octoling and octarian culture. Hopefully that would stop Marina from seeing her true intentions. Yes! This was totally gonna work! Now she just had to go find a suitable video or article-

 

“Pearlie, I’m back! I brought the food you wanted!”

 

Pearl froze on the spot. Shit, she was already back.


	2. Pearl and a Scandal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl concocts and attempts to execute a hasty plan.

In an instant a hastily, terrible plan was formed;

  1. Find something on her phone or on the TV about homosexuality.
  2. Wing it.



What a terrible plan.

Marina was standing at the kitchen table when Pearl walked out of her room.

 

“Pearlie, look! That burger place that opened up finally wasn't packed, so I got us that burger we were talking out.”

 

Two crinkled bags, one in each hand, she posed and showed off her spoils of war. Pearl faintly registered the words, but Marina’s outfit was just _unfair_. She was dressed in her preferred casual outfit, a white crop top with silver sneakers and shorts, a silver chain dangling from her neck. The outfit was capped off by a thin bandana tied around Marina’s forehead, a silver one with black spots.

 

“Pearlie?”

 

Pearl’s eyes came back into focus. “Sorry Mar, just a little out of it. So gimme the good news, what did you get?”

 

Marina held her arm out and pearl took the bag from her. It read; Inkopolis Inkburgers in small clean font on the bottom right corner of the bag, with the rest of the bag being blank.

 

Marina held the bag up and appreciated the design as well. “Hmm, well I hear minimalism is all the rage nowadays right?”

 

Pearl shrugged. “Yeah, it’s whatev, I don’t care too much. What does matter is if this burger tastes as good as the hype said it was. I mean, sometimes people will line up forever and then the food isn’t even good!”

 

Marina chuckled. “Like the time you convinced me to stand in line for 2 hours, only to get the worst banana split of our lives.”

 

Pearl flushed a little, and snorted instead of directly responding. “Yeah yeah I know, that one was one me. Cmon lets watch some news while we eat.”

“Sounds good! I’ll be right back, I need to wash my hands and use the bathroom.” Marina turned and entered their shared bathroom, and Pearl flopped down on their couch.

 

_Good cod Pearl, why did you blank out when you were looking at Marina earlier…_

 

Ever since Marina tackling her after their fight with Tartar, Pearl’s feelings had become full fledged, and sometimes even Marina’s presence just left her a gibbering moron. And it only began to drive home the fact that Pearl didn’t know jack shit about the person she liked.

 

_Alright Pearl, stop thinking, we have a job to do here._

 

Now, where to find this stuff? She started browsing Inkstagram and saw a post from a high school friend. It was a picture of her and her girlfriend kissing in a park. Damn they were cute… and Pearl was totally jealous.

 

_I could show this to Marina…_ There was a feeling that Pearl was forgetting something. And it hit her; She hadn’t even come out as gay to Marina yet!

 

Yikes. Using her phone might have Marina questioning why she was looking at this stuff in the first place. Time to go with TV then.

 

Pearl turned on their TV and immediately switched to a channel famous for being the worst muckrakers on television. Some trashy tabloid scandal channel might have exactly what she was looking for.

 

Right on cue, the ticker at the bottom displayed: “Squid sisters and forbidden love? Find out more after the break!”

 

Now that was convenient. She began to hum the melody of a new track she and Marina had been working on, and opened up her Inkopolis Inkburgers bag. Marina popped back into the living room and flopped down on the opposite side of the couch.

 

Black bun, black patty, black sauce. Pearl took a bite and showed off her now stained black mouth to Marina.

 

“Damn, they really were serious about the ink in inkburgers.”

 

Marina grimaced. “I don’t think I want my mouth looking like that…”

 

Pearl went for another bite, and realized that the commercials for the news channel were ending. The screen cut to the news anchor, an overly peppy pink tentacled squid who, in pearl’s opinion, had to be on some kind of drug to be that energized every time she was on screen.

 

_“Hello out there squids of Inkopolis! Today we have quite the scoop for you! We here at INK entertainment pride ourselves on always bringing the freshest, most accurate info right to your ears first, and today our topic is none other than the squid sisters!_

_I’m sure all of you know of the sensational folk pop duo who rose to superstardom as the previous anchors of inkopolis news. After their last splatfest, the two young squids disappeared of the map, and only recently have we gotten a source as to what they’ve been up to!”_

 

Well, Pearl knew what they had been up to, especially due to Agent 8 telling her and Marina about their ‘secret’ agent meetups. But where did the forbidden love come in?

 

“ _Well, the wait is no more! Right now, prepare to be shocked by footage showing what Callie and Marie have been up to since they disappeared from the limelight!”_

 

The channel cut to a vertical video clearly captured on a phone, slightly hidden by some foliage. It was overlooking a hotel pool, with Callie sunbathing and lounging on one of the pool chairs. Marie was sitting up next to her, and they were talking about something. The phones video wasn’t very high resolution, but you could tell Marie was laughing about something.

 

_This seems tame, so far at least._

 

Then Marie reached over and laid her hand on Callies stomach. The touch was little too tender and sensual to be easily be explained away, but then Marie leaned over and gave Callie a deep and loving kiss. And then the kiss only deepened as they closed their eyes.

 

_Ah. Good cod, can’t explain that one away. Those two are in so much shit._

 

Pearl was left speechless for a moment, as seeing the squid sisters straight up french kissing on camera wasn’t something she had expected. Seeing a scene this intimate and sensual was definitely making her very uncomfortable, and piling onto that was the fact that this was a recording intruding into what was clearly supposed to be a private moment.

 

All of those thoughts had to be shelved for the moment when she remembered why she had switched to this channel in the first place.

 

When Pearl glanced over to the other side of the couch, Marina was burning two holes into the TV with her stare, her food forgotten and left untouched in her lap.

 

_Is that bad or good?! Fuck me I have no idea, please don’t say it’s disgusting please please please..._

 

The idiotic part of Pearl’s mind chanted that Marina was going to say that it was incredibly hot, and that all of Pearl’s deepest fantasies were about to come true.

 

So when Marina turned to Pearl, Pearl felt like the stress had already shaved years off her lifespan, and time felt just a little slower as Marina began to speak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading


	3. Pearl Gets Some Good News

“Pearl, isn’t it illegal to film someone like this?” Marina looked rather serious as she spoke, her eyes turning back to the TV and no longer on Pearl.

 

Pearl’s world slowly shifted into focus from a state of blind panic, as she realized Marina wasn’t asking about the kiss at all. In fact, the expression on Marina’s face was like how she had looked in her first few turf war matches with Pearl, incredibly laser focused and intimidating, and Pearl found her confidence slipping away by the moment.

 

“Oh! Uhm…. yeah, it is. In this case they could probably argue stalking. However catching him is gonna be near impossible, because it’s not illegal for the news network to broadcast this, and they’ll just say they received the clip anonymously.

 

The exposé continued in the background, and Pearl refocused on it after receiving no response or reply from Marina. 

 

The Squid sisters were still locked in a passionate kiss, and now Marie was climbing on top of Callie, her hands starting to encircle Callie’s waist. Whoever was recording the video shifted in the bushes and an audible rustle was heard on camera.

Marie’s head instantly snapped towards the source of the noise.

 

_ “Callie! There’s someone watching us!” _

Callie was still a little out of it.  _ “Wha? Marie what are you talking about?” _

 

Marie leapt to her feet and began to rapidly approach the bush while Callie sat up on the chair. Whoever was filming quickly shoved the phone in their pocket and started to super jump away, and the last sounds heard were Marie yelling for him to come back.

 

The channel cut back to the news anchor.  _ “Wow! What a development! The famed squid sister cousins are actually lovers, as you just saw in that clip sent to us by an anonymous squid!” _

 

_ Yup. Anonymous like usual.  _ Pearl wished she hadn’t been right about that.

 

_ “ Following this ground breaking development, we’ve tracked down Callie’s mom in order to get a statement!” _

 

The camera cut to a reporter following an older black tentacled squid, and Pearl grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. Marina, who had been intently watching, blinked as the screen went blank and turned to face Pearl for the first time since they started eating. 

 

Pearl felt the urge to explain. “You just know Callie’s mom is about to be completely blindsided by this, I don’t think I can handle watching more of this right now.”

 

She was only sort of lying here. The realization that Callie and Marie were lovers definitely fulfilled more than a few of her fantasies and daydreams. But at the same time, she knew how bad this was gonna be for them, as the media would hound them relentlessly in the upcoming weeks, if not months.

_ Alright. I’ll send a message to Marie and Callie later. I still need to ask Marina abou- _

 

Marina cut in. “Pearl, how do-” She faltered for a second, uncomfortable with what she was about to say.

 

“Pearl, how does inkopolis usually view relationships like this?”

 

_ Oh god what am I supposed to say to that?  _

 

Pearl knew that she had to answer without giving too much away. Her half formed thoughts would have to do.

 

“Well, uh, there’s kinda two parts here. So um, I guess first is the lesbian part, which is pretty accepted amongst people our age nowadays. You’ll find that the older the squid, the more likely they are to be against stuff like this.”

Against her will, Pearl’s mind thought of the way her parents had reacted when she had come out as gay to them years ago. 

“But overall I think most people aren’t against this stuff anymore. Now uh, the cousins part I don’t really know, because I haven’t really seen it come up in the media, like, ever.”

 

Marina was still silent. Cod, this was awkward.

 

Embarrassed, Pearl felt an inane need to defend herself. “Of course, um, I’m totally ok with them being together, y’know letting squids do what they want and all that…”

 

Okay now. Revealing her opinions on the subject was exactly what she  _ wasn’t _ supposed to be doing. 

 

_ Quick! Turn it around on her or something! _

 

“Mar, how was it over there in octarian society anyw-”

 

Pearl’s attempt to finally gain some information was cut short as Marina stood up and started to pace back and forth, her tentacles animated and moving around as she became more emotional.

 

“Pearlie, this isn’t right. They can’t just invade their privacy like this and then get away with it! And now they’re going to harass them and their family for months! We have to do something to help, we- we have to stop them from airing this clip, or stop them from harassing them. We have to show our support, Callie and Marie are wonderful friends and I’m not just gonna stand by and watch-”

 

Pearl thought her opportunity to learn about Marina had passed by, but the passion Marina showed as she ranted about protecting and supporting the squid sisters told her enough to answer the question she wanted answered tonight. There wasn’t even a hint that Marina disapproved of Callie and Marie’s relationship in any way. 

 

“- watch as they just attack them like this for views and money. Pearlie we need to go there and yell at them or something, or hack into their servers and mess with their broadcast and files, or-”

 

Hm. Doing something illegal like that was definitely not in their best interests. Pearl cut in. 

“Woah woah, lets not get ahead of ourselves here. Doing something illegal like that is NOT a good idea, alright, c’mon you were just telling me last week that you hoped all octolings would behave themselves well as they joined inkopolis.”

 

Marina had the wind taken out of her sails a bit, and she deflated slightly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right..”

 

Pearl interjected immediately. “Of course we’re gonna support them, alright Mar? Let’s just, uh, plan it out first. Let me go to the bathroom real quick.”

 

Pearl got up and shuffled her way to the bathroom, and she heard Marina turn on the TV again behind her. She closed the door behind her and walked up to the mirror and splashed some water on her face. 

 

_ I have a chance! _

 

Pearl grabbed her two tentacles and jumped up and down while trying to be as quiet as possible, her feet hitting the carpet and a squeal squelched in her throat. Cod she was so happy that at least Marina wouldn’t hate her or be weirded out by her if she came out. 

 

A warm feeling blossomed in her chest and spread throughout her entire body, and she saw herself in the mirror, a small smile curving the edges of her lips, her face slightly flushed. 

 

_ But don’t get too ahead of yourself, Pearl. _

 

She splashed some more water on her face before leaving the bathroom. Callie and Marie we’re probably going through the worst time of their lives right now, she had to stop Marina from doing anything rash without thinking it through, so this wasn’t the time to be carried away by her fantasies. 

 

She had other things to focus on, at least for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading


End file.
